Speaking of this, Li Ziyuan paused for a moment before continuing: "The reason why I agreed to their request to take the initiative to apply to participate in the war is to make up for this last lesson for them. Let them really know that they are also soldiers. You can't think of yourself as a real common person just because you have a folk character in front of your name. ”

"In fact, the performance of the militia that participated in this war just proves that my fears are not unfounded. Except for the Hubei militia, which I had trained with all my might, the militias in the rest of the counties had little real combat effectiveness. If such a soldier is replenished into the army, how long will it take to train it? ”

"When the time comes, the situation will change, can you give us enough time to train? Who of you, who is the commander of the regiment, the commander of the detachment, or even the commander of an independent battalion, who dares to make such a guarantee? It's a soldier or not a soldier, and it's got to see on the battlefield. Since the militia is one of the three of us combined armed forces, it must not be so thin. ”

"The higher authorities formed the militia in order to make the army and the people in the army, to rush forward when needed, and to build up fighters in the vast sea of people's war on the battlefield behind enemy lines. Instead of asking for a group of people who don't know anything, just stand guard and check the road, this kind of thing that both the children's group and the women can do. ”

"If you can only take on such a task, why make so much determination to distribute weapons to them? People's war is about mobilizing all manpower and material resources to fight against foreign enemies, not just relying on a rabble to fight an enemy armed to the teeth. These militias should also be able to pull out to fight when needed. ”

"With the overall situation basically decided, I agree with these militias to participate in the war, just to let them see what the real battle is like, and really experience the test of blood and fire. Once the order is given by the higher authorities to expand the militia, these militias can quickly reorganize into local forces in the event that the independent battalions are pulled away and upgraded. ”

"That way, we don't become one-legged people. At any time, it is guaranteed that the main forces and local armed forces have corresponding supplementary forces and reserves. In this way, we can ensure that we have an endless supply of available reserve forces. Instead of relying only on the main forces, charge and kill the battle in front. ”

"After this make-up class, my next step is to focus on the building of local armed forces and militias. The backbone militia of the entire Ludong will use the winter agricultural leisure time to conduct rotation training. At the same time, a number of full-time cadres were transferred from the army to various districts to serve as deputy directors of the armed forces committees. ”

"The local armed forces should be reorganized and strengthened, and everything should be carried out in accordance with the requirements of the main forces, and we should not put ourselves on the standard of a guerrilla unit. Starting today, all independent battalions must conduct training in accordance with the new training requirements issued by military sub-districts. The militia must also be retrained and strengthened, and the standards of the local armed forces must be met.

"The militia of each village is divided into militia platoons according to their numbers. The militia of the large village is formed into platoons, and the militia of small villages are formed into squads. The militias of the districts and communes are organized into militia battalions or companies according to their numbers. The commander of each battalion and company shall be concurrently served by the armed forces committee at the county and district level. Secretary of the district party committee, concurrently serving as a political instructor. ”

"Young militiamen under the age of 30 are regularly trained for one to two months a year. Those over 30 years old and female militia are trained seven days a quarter. Militia and female militiamen over the age of 30 are not included in the battalions and platoons of the militia. In addition to some military training, female militias also have to receive some training in field care. ”

"Strive to do so in the shortest possible time without increasing the burden on the people. Establish a stable first and second echelon of reserve units with real combat effectiveness in the entire division. In order to ensure that after the local armed forces are escalated and pulled away, the gap can be effectively filled in the shortest possible time. ”

"The changing situation requires that our thinking must be able to keep up with this change. Otherwise, if we miss the opportunity, we may lose a lot. What I mean is that after the completion of the training, the armed forces and militias in various localities should take the initiative to attack. In addition, there is the task of uprooting strongholds, and the main forces of the division are only responsible for coordination and fire support, and they are responsible for the main tasks. ”

During this conversation, Li Ziyuan expressed all his considerations for allowing the militia to participate in the war this time. And for his remarks, except for a few cadres who know the inside story. Almost all the participants in the meeting, including Ma Yongcheng and He Sanliang, felt that Li Ziyuan's words were very reasonable.

At this time, there was no such thing as a regular reserve. In addition to the mobilized recruits, a large part of the source of the expansion of the main force comes from the upgrading of local armed forces. After the upgrading of the local armed forces, everyone knew that the militias were the main supplementary force for the regrouping of the local armed forces.

However, the real combat effectiveness of the militia is still quite limited. There is also a big gap between the equipment and combat effectiveness of the independent battalions in the localities and the main forces. After all, the intensity and pertinence of training are far different depending on the task faced. Although this can quickly build a shelf, it will take a long time for the upgraded troops to form real combat effectiveness.

But the change in the situation does not necessarily give so much time. Although Li Ziyuan's retraining of the militia and treating it according to the requirements of the main force is somewhat whimsical, it is not necessarily unreasonable. At the very least, it will greatly shorten the time it takes to integrate these militias into the army for training when needed.

If this plan is followed, it will take up to two years for the militia of the whole sub-district to become the general reserve of the entire sub-district. This is undoubtedly a pretty good result for the heads of the various troops. At least when fighting on the inside front, casualties are replenished much faster.

In this operation, the militia of Hubei County, which had been thoroughly trained by Li Ziyuan, had a relatively excellent performance and discipline, which was very admired by some military commanders. Except for the first time on the battlefield, there was some panic. When it stabilizes, it is not even worse than some independent battalion to get there.

Most of the results achieved by the militia in this war were obtained by the Hubei militia. Think about it, if such a militia is replenished into its own troops, how much trouble will it save itself? At least the formation of combat effectiveness can be accelerated by more than double. Thinking of this, the people who were dissatisfied with Li Ziyuan finally acquiesced.

persuaded the cadres below, and Li Ziyuan opened the last obstacle to realizing his ideas. The director of the Political Department and the chief of staff of the Military Region, who attended the meeting as observers, also listened very carefully and made detailed notes when Li Ziyuan expressed his negative thoughts.

After the cadres of the various units dispersed, the chief of staff of the sub-division looked at Li Ziyuan in front of him, and after glancing at the director of the political department, he said with a wry smile: "If the militia is also organized according to the regular troops, your brother is going to break the operational boundary between the inner and outer lines, and include the militia of the entire Ludong sub-district in the ranks of your reserves." ”

"Do you know that there are at least 3,000 militias in the entire Ludong region that meet your standards? According to your plan, it is enough to make a compendium brigade. Do you kid have so many weapons, do you have them allocated? You must know that a large part of the equipment seized this time has to be handed over. ”

Regarding the question of the chief of staff, Li Ziyuan smiled and said: "Chief of staff, the internal and external operations themselves are already quite vague now. To tell the truth, in our previous anti-sweeping operations, the difference between the inner and outer lines is that the main force sorts out on the outside line to cut off the enemy's rear route. Local armed forces, internal operations to protect the villagers. ”

"In other words, as we steadily advance into enemy-occupied territory, the outer line will also become the inner line at any time. In this case, there is no big difference between fighting on the inside and outside lines. I estimate that our Taihang Military Region has been developing for a few months, and we are fighting on the outside line, and I am afraid that we will either jump to Taiyue or to Jiluyu. ”

"Aren't the several divisions of our southern line already connected to southern Hebei and Hebei, Shandong, and Henan? Even through Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, they were connected with the 115th Division of Shandong. Chief of Staff, our tactics have always been that the enemy retreats and we advance, but now the Japanese puppet army is gradually shrinking, and if we can't follow up in time, then it will become that the enemy retreats and I don't advance. ”

"The situation is changing, and it is time for you who are the heads of the military region to change too. Shouldn't the troops we have previously downsized be re-expanded? Chief of Staff, do you really think that these backup echelons are only prepared for the Ludong Army Division? Together, the recruits have never always needed to be transferred there? ”

"Who can guarantee that you, who are the superiors, will not mobilize local armed forces from the Ludong Army Division and integrate them into the main force to fill the gap? This is a general reserve for our entire Taihang Military Region troops. The superiors need it, although it can be pulled away by the system. ”

"Also, I've done some research. These militias have a part of their own weapons. Although some of them are too old, some of them are old guns that lack bullets. Like the old Murata of the Japanese, there are also old guns like the Thirteen Taibo, which are difficult to make up even bullets. ”

"But among them, Jin-made rifles, as well as guns made by old Hanyang and old sleeves, still account for the vast majority. In addition, there is a part of the 38 style of the Eight Classics. The gap is about one-third in addition to the need to adjust because it is too dilapidated. Among them, the original militia was too old, because the weapons could be adjusted out if they were not included in the sequence. ”

"I'm taking out a batch of weapons from various units and transferring them to the armed forces committees of the counties. However, these weapons are not directly distributed, but are only used for daily training. Rather, the reserves are in the counties. As soon as the militia needs to be mobilized and mobilized, these weapons will be distributed. The most important thing is that once these militias need to be integrated into the troops, then the troops receiving the soldiers must not even give them a gun. ”

"After such calculations, the weapons that actually need to be replenished are the training guns that have been transferred to the counties. I think Ludong Sub-district can still meet this gap if it thinks of a way. But, Chief of Staff, I'm going to have to get along with you this time. You will take away all the weapons captured this time from the Japanese army, can you leave me two-thirds of the puppet army? ”

"Those Xinsi-style rifle machine guns, no one on our side uses them. You just bring it back, and you lack accessories for this weapon. Rather than go back and break it and there is no way to repair it, it is better to leave it to us to equip the militia. It's really not good, you can bring back all the light and heavy machine guns, and just leave the rifle for me. ”

Regarding Li Ziyuan's words, the chief of staff smiled and said: "This is what you said, then I will call the shots in this matter." I'll bring back all the Japanese equipment and heavy machine guns, and I'll leave you half of the light machine guns. As for the rifles used by the puppet army, since you are so generous, I will not take it too harshly, and leave it for you. ”